The Egan Maritime Institute sent its exhibits and collections manager to the beach Monday to inspect the splintered timbers, which are fastened together with rusted iron. The nonprofit said the wreckage turned up near a spot where remains believed to be from the Warren Sawyer have surfaced before.
The institute plans to send a report on the find to state underwater archaeologists, who will work with Egan to try to confirm which vessel the timbers actually belonged to.
For Nantucket, storms like this weekend's nor'easter do double duty. They tear up the shoreline, but they also occasionally hand back pieces of the island's maritime past that the sand has kept hidden for well over a century. Its story has apparently stuck around close enough to shore that a single storm can knock the sand loose and expose it again.
Nobody has confirmed yet that these are the schooner's actual bones, but the timbers are out there right now for anyone who wants to see them. As one local involved in the find put it simply, it's still there.